Here's Where to Find Luxury at Lunch: Prix-Fixe Menus for Less Than $50

New York is chock-full of fancy restaurants with wallet-busting menus. But if you go at lunchtime, you can often get yourself a real deal.

Courtesy Boulet

The lunch tasting menu at Bouley(163 Duane Street; 212-964-2525) is abundant and totally worth it at $55 for five courses (and it comes with plenty of amusing extras to make you feel extra-posh). Start with a smoked salmon blini, maybe move onward to the Chatham sea bass with peas and fava beans, then a melt-in-the-mouth Kobe-style beef cheek with pillowy blue-kale gnocchi, strawberries with almond ice cream, and a chocolate soufflé.

Uptown (get your jackets on, gentlemen), head over to Jean-Georges (1 Central Park West; 212-299-3900), where a very special lunch can be yours for $48 for two courses (or three for $72). To put this in context, the same plates at dinner are $128 for three courses. Enjoy peekytoe crab risotto, foie gras brûlée, or sautéed veal scallopini with Flying Pig ham, mushrooms, and lavender.

For $47, you can head to Marea (240 Central Park South; 212-582-5100) for a two-Michelin-star lunch (two courses). How about Pacific jack mackerel, prosciutto, celery, and tomato, followed by tagliata featuring Creekstone Farm sirloin, bone marrow panzanella, and braised romaine? Or push the boat out all the way and sample the five-course seafood tasting menu, which is $80 ($140 with wine).

Katherine is a freelance food writer at the Village Voice. She studied at Le Cordon Blue, and writes the illustrated recipe blog makethatmakethis.com. When she's not pottering round greenmarkets, checking out new tacos and searching for the city's best soup dumplings, she can be found in darkened theaters writing jokes.